Mitchell Bordelon wins 2016 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Mitchell Bordelon, a 2015 Goldwater Honorable Mention, has conducted research in numerous laboratories throughout his undergraduate career; he completed an internship in the pharmaceutical industry at Nexgen Pharma and spent a summer abroad at Christian-Albrechts-UniversitÃ¤t zu Kiel in Germany under the DAAD RISE program.

However, Mitchell has spent the largest amount of time researching with both Professor Jamie Neilson (Department of Chemistry) and Professor Kathryn Ross (Department of Physics). Working in collaboration, Mitchell delved into the fundamental physics behind structure-property relationships in solid-state materials on numerous projects ranging from perovskite-based photovoltaic materials to magnetic interactions in geometrically frustrated materials. He traveled to Oak Ridge National Laboratory to conduct neutron scattering experiments at the High Flux Isotope Reactor and utilized this experiment to delve into the intriguing magnetic ordering found in the material Fe3PO4O3. In fall 2015, Mitchell co-authored a published manuscript detailing the properties of the crystalline Fe3PO4O3 lattice, and in spring 2016, he presented this work at the American Physical Society March meeting.

Mitchell will pursue a graduate degree at the brink of chemistry and physics at the University of California–Santa Barbara in the fall. His PhD research will be focus on correlated electronic phenomena in materials. Mitchell would like to thank Colorado State University for providing him with ample opportunities to pursue and develop his interests in science.